Llyn y Fan Fach
One of the most celebrated Welsh fairy stories is the legend of Llyn y Fan Fach. This legend is related to the tale of the Physicians of Myddfai, a succession of herbal physicians who lived in the village of Myddfai in Carmarthenshire. Many believed them to be descendants of the ‘Lady of the Lake’.
According to tradition, a young farmer was grazing his cattle on the mountainside near Llyn y Fan Fach (now in the Brecon Beacons National Park), when he noticed a beautiful woman on the lake. After three attempts to woo her, she agreed to become his wife, on the condition that he would never raise his hand to her three times. They lived happily for many years at a farm called Esgair Llaethdy, and she bore him three sons. One day, however, the farmer struck his wife a third and final time, and she returned to the depths of the lake. Vertical Divider
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Un o’r straeon tylwyth teg Cymreig enwocaf yw chwedl Llyn y Fan Fach. Mae'r chwedl hon yn gysylltiedig â hanes Meddygon Myddfai, llinach o Ffisigwyr perlysiau a oedd yn byw ym mhentref Myddfai, Sir Gaerfyrddin. Roedd llawer yn credu eu bod yn ddisgynyddion ‘Merch y Llyn’.
Yn ôl traddodiad, roedd ffermwr ifanc yn pori ei wartheg ar ochr y mynydd ger Llyn y Fan Fach (sydd bellach ym Mharc Cenedlaethol Bannau Brycheiniog), pan sylwodd ar ferch hardd ar y Llyn. Ar ôl tair ymgais i geisio’i llaw, cytunodd i’w briodi, ar yr amod na fyddai’n ei churo deirgwaith. Buont yn byw’n hapus am sawl blwyddyn ar ffarm o’r enw Esgair Llaethdy, a chawsant dri o feibion. Un diwrnod, fodd bynnag, tarodd y ffarmwr ei wraig am y trydydd tro, a’r tro olaf, a dychwelodd hi i ddyfnderoedd y llyn. |
This collection was published on behalf of the National Fund for Welsh Troops to bring some ‘home comfort’ to Welsh regiments during the First World War. Works include popular tales, songs and histories, many accompanied by beautiful illustrations by contemporary Welsh artists. This edition was sponsored by Margaret Lloyd George (1864-1941), wife of the Prime Minister, who invited Cardiff-born artist Margaret Lindsay Williams (1888-1960) to contribute an illustration. She chose to depict a scene from the legend of Llyn y Fan Fach.
Cyhoeddwyd y casgliad hwn ar ran y Gronfa Genedlaethol er Milwyr Cymru, er mwyn cynnig ychydig o 'gysuron cartref' i gatrodau Cymreig yn ystod y Rhyfel Byd Cyntaf. Mae'r gwaith yn cynnwys chwedlau, caneuon a hanesion poblogaidd, gyda lluniau hyfryd gan ddarlunwyr Cymreig cyfoes yn cyd-fynd â nifer ohonynt. Noddwyd y rhifyn hwn gan Margaret Lloyd George (1864-1941), gwraig y Prif Weinidog, wnaeth wahodd yr arlunydd a aned yng Nghaerdydd, Margaret Lindsay Williams (1888-1960), i gyfrannu darlun. Dewisodd dynnu llun o olygfa o chwedl Llyn y Fan Fach. |
John Morris Jones (ed.), Gwlad fy Nhadau: Rhodd Cymru i’w Byddin [Land of my Fathers: Wales’ gift to her Regiment], (London, 1915)
Margaret Lindsay Williams requested the approval of Prime Minister David Lloyd George to serve in France as an official artist with the Welsh Division. Although her request was denied, Margaret used her artistic talent to support the war effort in other ways, illustrating this complete version of Llyn y Fan Fach, reprinted from Gwlad fy Nhadau.
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Gofynnodd Margaret Lindsay Williams am ganiatâd y Prif Weinidog David Lloyd George i wasanaethu yn Ffrainc fel artist swyddogol gyda'r Adran Gymreig. Er i’w chais gael ei wrthod, defnyddiodd Margaret ei thalent artistig i gefnogi ymdrech y rhyfel mewn ffyrdd eraill, gan ddarlunio’r fersiwn cyflawn hwn o Llyn y Fan Fach, a ailargraffwyd o Gwlad fy Nhadau.
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William Rees, Chwedl Llyn y Fan (The Legend of Llyn y Fan), (Liverpool, 1917). Illustrations by Margaret Lindsay Williams
Following her disappearance, the Lady of the Lake is said to have returned to instruct her three sons, particularly the eldest, Rhiwallon, in the art of healing and medicine.
Some medieval manuscripts refer to ‘Rhiwallon, the doctor, and his sons’ as the ‘leading doctors of their time’ during the reign of Rhys Gryg (Rhys the Hoarse, d. 1234), a Welsh prince who ruled part of the Kingdom of Deheubarth. How the Llyn y Fan Fach legend is connected to the Physicians of Myddfai remains unclear, as this aspect of the tale only appeared in print in 1821, with a more detailed version by John Williams in 1861, collected from oral testimonies of some of those living in Myddfai in 1841. Vertical Divider
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Ar ôl iddi ddiflannu, mae sôn fod Merch y Llyn wedi dychwelyd i addysgu ei thri mab, yn enwedig yr hynaf, Rhiwallon, yn y grefft o iachau a meddygaeth.
Mae rhai llawysgrifau canoloesol yn cyfeirio at ‘Rhiwallon, y meddyg, a'i Feibion’ fel ‘meddygon blaenllaw eu hoes’ yn ystod teyrnasiad Rhys Gryg (bu farw 1234), un o dywysogion Cymru fu’n teyrnasu dros rhan o Deyrnas y Deheubarth. Mae’n aneglur ym mha fodd y mae chwedl Llyn y Fan Fach yn gysylltiedig â Meddygon Myddfai am mai dim ond yn 1821 yr ymddangosodd yr agwedd hon ar y stori mewn print, gyda fersiwn mwy manwl i ddilyn gan John Williams yn 1861, ar ôl casglu tystiolaeth ar lafar gan rai o drigolion Myddfai yn 1841. |
The Cambro-Briton was a monthly periodical published in London from September 1819 to June 1822. It was founded by John Humphreys Parry (1786-1825), a member of the London-based Welsh literary and cultural Gwyneddigion Society. It included essays on Welsh history, language and literature, and published the first printed account of the Llyn y Fan Fach legend and the Physicians of Myddfai. |
Roedd y Cambro-Briton yn gyfnodol misol a gyhoeddwyd yn Llundain o fis Medi 1819 i fis Mehefin 1822. Fe'i sefydlwyd gan John Humphreys Parry (1786-1825), aelod o gymdeithas lenyddol a diwylliannol Llundain, y Gwyneddigion. Mae'n cynnwys traethodau ar hanes Cymru, iaith a llenyddiaeth, ac ynddo y cyhoeddwyd y cofnod printiedig cyntaf o chwedl Llyn y Fan Fach a Meddygon Myddfai. |
‘The Legend of Meddygon Myddfai’, The Cambro-Briton, Volume II, (1821)
Richard Fenton, Tours in Wales (1804-1813), (London, 1917)
The first written account of the Llyn y Fan Fach legend and the Physicians of Myddfai was recorded by Richard Fenton (1747-1821) during one of his tours through Wales. Whilst travelling through Carmarthenshire on the 20 June, 1809, he writes in his journal how an old woman told him the fable of the first of the physicians who was fishing in the ‘lake of the Van’, when he heard a woman’s voice from underneath the water.
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Cofnododd Richard Fenton (1747-1821) y hanes ysgrifenedig cyntaf o chwedl Llyn y Fan Fach a’r Meddygon Myddfai, yn ystod un o'i deithiau trwy Gymru. Ysgrifennodd yn ei gyfnodolyn tra'n teithio trwy Sir Gaerfyrddin ar 20 Mehefin, 1809, traddodiad gan hen wraig am y meddyg cyntaf a oedd yn pysgota yn 'llyn y Van', pan glywodd lais menyw o dan y dŵr.
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John Williams Ab Ithel, The Physicians of Myddvai: Meddygon Myddfai (Llandovery, 1861)
A more comprehensive version of the Llyn y Fan Fach legend appeared in Ab Ithel’s edition of the Physicians of Myddfai. This account was compiled from a variety of oral testimonies from some of the inhabitants of Myddfai in 1841.
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Ymddangosodd fersiwn mwy cynhwysfawr o chwedl Llyn y Fan Fach yng nghyhoeddiad Ab Ithel, Meddygon Myddfai. Lluniwyd y cofnod hwn o amrywiaeth o dystiolaeth ar lafar gan rai o drigolion Myddfai yn 1841.
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This section, compiled by an author identified only as J. M., is the first printed version of a medieval Welsh uroscopic tract called Ansoddau’r Trwnc – The Qualities of Urine. This work is a medicinal tract on the inspection or analysis of urine in an effort to diagnose illness. Like many texts of this kind, it is often attributed to the work of the Physicians of Myddfai.
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Yr adran hon - a luniwyd gan awdur a enwir fel J. M. yn unig - yw’r fersiwn argraffedig cyntaf o bibell wrosgopig Cymreig o’r oesoedd canol o’r enw Ansoddau’r Trwnc – The Qualities of Urine. Mae'r gwaith hwn yn bibell feddyginiaethol at ddibenion dadansoddi wrin, mewn ymdrech i roi diagnosis o salwch. Fel llawer o destunau o'r math hwn, caiff ei briodoli’n aml i Feddygon Myddfai.
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T. Hicks, Drych i Ddwfr Cleifion [A Urine Mirror for the Sick], (Carmarthen, 1765)